Beginning in a new church takes allot of time and energy. We’ve been remodeling our little cabin out back of the church and we have everything ready for the carpet and next week the new roof should be started.

Its been a pleasure being apart of our new church the past few months. We seem to fit like a glove, their already learning to pick on us.

Thats always a sure fire way of knowing that their beginning to care and accept us as their friends.

Pastoring should be a relationship with his congregation, not a dictatorship,  or him being the boss or the one who makes all the decisions.

A pastor and his wife ought to be friends with the congregation as well as the shepard.

Theres too many in the ministry that treat the church as their own personal business, or their own bank account.

They expect the congregation to believe exactly as he & his wife do and if they don’t then their not very spiritual.

God really isn’t interested in having churches full of spiritual giants, how do I know that?  Because no where in scripture does he say that everyone should be.

Instead what I find is him telling us to become mature and humble servants.

Thats what we’re missing today, Christians (including pastors) who will admit their sinners and struggle with sin, but who are thankful for Gods grace and his forgiveness.

We have so many today who act as though they never sin or have a bad thought and everything they do is perfect, their children and their spouse walk on water.

Give me a break.

The only one who ever walked on this earth without sin,  was Christ

What we need in the church is more servants,  theres allot of work to be done, and very few servants willing to work.

Thank God for his grace, we are a people who need it, because we all fail so often

Yesterday we had a great day preaching at Faith Bible, we’re pretty sure they will extend a call to me to become their full time pastor this coming Sunday.  The more we’re there, the more I enjoy this small group of people.

I’m looking forward to getting back into ministry on a regular basis and being able to minister once again and to have them minister to us. Theres no greater joy than to open Gods Word and teach people about our Lord and Savior.

When we got home our kids and my daughters fiancée Joey, and our niece Christen were there to greet us and to spend 4th of July together.  Their all nuts and so I as the mature leader of our family have to keep things in check and safe.

We always have some fireworks that sometimes gets out of control, because my kids just aren’t careful like me.

One year we almost set the house on fire, because as I showed them that you have to nail some of those flaming twirling things down so they won’t fly off and hurt someone, but I didn’t notice all the leaves under our WOODEN DECK,  thank God for water hoses,

This year we did better, only burnt a hole in our shed, our daughters foot, sons finger,  dented our house and almost blew my shorts off!!  Yep its a good thing I keep them under control and safe, its my job!

Other than that a normal weekend!  But we enjoy getting together and it is a real stress reliever and every once in awhile you have to relieve that stress.

Everyone of us are under stress everyday, from our jobs,  watching the news about our Socialist president and his henchmen, our bills, our future and all sorts of other things that creep up on a daily basis.

Our kids have stresses from attending college, everyday the things that they have to learn and get finished in a certain time builds up to a boiling point in their lives.

Our oldest son who is a deputy gets confronted with scenes that can cause nightmares, he has to deal with crime, dope heads, accidents, stupid people and death.

Death is probably the hardest thing to deal with as a cop or as a pastor.  He deals with the shock of the moment and I deal with the emotional aftermath.

One of the hardest things to deal with is the death of children. We live in a sick society that kills our children inside the womb as well as outside the womb. To come upon an accident where children have been killed or in a backyard where a child has been murdered is a horrendous scene.

Its a part of every cops job that can cause the greatest amount of emotional upheaval, especially if they have children of their own, it hits home in their hearts.

But we don’t think about it, but we should thank God that we have police who tenderly and lovingly take care of those children with respect and dignity.  That we have men and women officers who are willing to put aside their own personal feelings and deal with a situation so that child can be taken care of.

Its our officers that at times have to swallow hard, suppress their own emotions in order to deal with a situation that they didn’t cause nor wanted to ever be apart of, but there they are in the mist of it.

My wife and I both pray for our son and all officers that God will give them the strength to do their ministry, because even if they don’t recognize it, they are ministers, ministering to a lost and sinful world.

I believe children at a young age are still under Gods provisions for heaven, and when they are killed, they go immediately to heaven, just as David said when his infant baby died, he can’t come to me but when he (David) dies he can go to him.

So an officer is taking care of one of Gods children, and we need to thank them for their service.

As a minister I also have to deal with death at funerals, swallowing hard and keeping my emotions reigned in, and the stress can get to you. There have been times after a funeral that I’ve just preached for someone that I’ve broke down.

But you keep going and you pray for Gods strength and he does give it, something that I remind myself of,  God told us that he will never give us anything more than what we’re able to bear.

When we’re in those times of stress, we have to remember that we can handle it, God said that if we’re in a situation that he has ordained us being there. And if he has ordained us to be there, then he will see us through.

What we have to do is keep focused on who it is that we are serving in those tough times, its the Lord, who has called us to a position to serve and to minister to those who need help. Its going to be tough at times, its going to cause great stress, but the rewards are worth it all.

When we get to heaven the Lord will say you helped those who could not help themselves, you gave of yourself when you thought you had nothing more to give, you sacrificed when your alter was bare.

WELL DONE THOU GOOD AND FAITHFUL SERVANT

I read an article in the Sword of the Lord that talked about all the attacks on Christians that go unreported by the News-media here in the U.S.

Pastors who have been shot and killed while standing in the pulpit by a stranger who walked in, pro life activist who have been attacked for just quietly passing out literature.

I look at all of the things that are going on in our country and I feel as though we’ve somehow have passed into a period of complete insanity.

Back in the Old Testament in Deut. 12 it speaks about how the people of the nation Israel had rejected everything good and true, and did things that were right in their own eyes. We hear the same thing screamed at us continually today.

What may be right for you might not be right for me! And I can do what makes me feel good.

And so we have now entered into a period where everyone does what they want and they expect everyone to accept what they choose to do.

So if you don’t want to say the word God in the pledge of allegiance, I should be able to sue and force everyone to not say it.

If you think there should be a condom dispenser in your Jr High, everyone should agree with you, afterall in Switzerland 12 yr olds have specially made condoms to fit and so should American 12 yr. olds.

Just because your married, you should still be able to date according to a growing number of people who think this is a good idea.

If you have a back ache, marijuana is better than aspirin any day,  so make it legal and call it medicine.

Write books that totally destroys the Word of God and then say your a Christian and God told you to write this book.

Cuss out your neighbor, get drunk as a skunk, live like the devil and then go to church on Sunday and tell everyone how God has blessed you.

Do what you think is right, do what makes you feel good, and blind yourself to the reality that we have gone over the cliff of insanity.

Where we’re at as a nation is nothing new,  other nations have done the same thing, and eventually they were destroyed and taken over by other people.

In Deuteronomy the people had conceived every evil thing one can imagine to get involved with and eventually it all came to an end.

If Americans think for one moment that they can act and do whatever they want without any consequences, they are in for a rude awakening, just as they were in Deuteronomy.

The Israelite s were eventually devastated and conquered, they were carried off as slaves into other countries.

In misery and in hardships, they finally called out to God and repented of their sin, they wanted what was good and true once again.

God heard their cries and forgave them, he restored the nation of Israel and blessed them.

How far will America go?  How far will we push God until he has no choice but to destroy us?

How far will Christians push God out of their churches and do what is right in their own eyes before God finally reaches down and shakes us to our knees to remind us of who he is?

He doesn’t have to be pushed that far, we can choose to do whats right in HIS eyes right now and receive his blessings right now.

We can have sanity in our lives instead of insanity,  let the world go nuts, but we can have peace by grabbing onto Gods Word and receiving his truth.

Let the Lord direct your life and not this world, because Folks, its going to get even crazier than what it is now, get ready.

Have you ever noticed when you have an indoor cat, that they choose the worst days to go outside?  Ours is like that, either its snowing so bad that you can’t see across the deck, or like this morning, its pouring rain out and it thinks its a great time to go and smell the roses!

Ours of course wants to stand in front of the door and shake its paws and think about it for an hour, and so I have to slowly put my foot behind it, and kick it out the door!!!!

The cat then decides it don’t want to be out there and stares at me to let it back in, but I’m not so easy, let it stare, Keith can let it in!!

Cats and people are allot alike, they see something they want,  they get it, then decide this was a bad idea and then stare at it and wonder how in the world they can get rid of it!

Right now our cat is getting soaked, but I figure you can’t get it in a tub to bathe it, so nature is taking care of a problem for me!

God is so good.

What have you desired to have and after you got it, then wished you didn’t gotten it after-all?

If we think about it, all of us have done it a time or two, this past summer I wanted to own my own business and so I got into expediting with my own van. I loved driving all over the country, but I was going in debt faster than my wheels could turn.

Now of course I wish I hadn’t done that, we have to dig ourselves out somehow, and its not going to be easy.

But one thing I’m thankful for is an understanding wife, who should have killed me before I got so far in, but thankfully she didn’t, otherwise it would be difficult to write this, being dead and all!

I’m also thankful to our Lord who also will give you enough rope to hang yourself, but will continue to love you despite our dumb decisions at times.

Over the years I’ve made allot of dumb decisions,  but thats what happens when your making your own decisions and not letting God direct those decisions.

You have to pray and pray,  be patient and let the Lord open the opportunity that he wants for you and sometimes it won’t even be the thing that you thought you wanted.

Just like the cat this morning he saw an open door of opportunity that he wanted, but after he went through it, decided it wasn’t the right thing,  He Should Have Prayed First!!

Throughout scripture we read about how the early people of God were persecuted and many times killed for believing in Jesus Christ that he is the Son of God and that he is the only way you and I can get to heaven.

Those who reject Jesus as that, hate the people who do. When you think about it, why would anyone care if someone believes in Jesus and believes he’s the only way to heaven?

If I believe there is no God, or in Buddha, or in the tooth fairy, who cares? Go and live your life and leave me alone.

But why does it infuriate those who don’t believe in Christ to the point that they want us dead?  If they believe Jesus doesn’t exist or isn’t the only way to heaven, but we do, why should they care?

They care because when God created man, he left a void in every person that can only be filled with Jesus Christ, he then sent his Spirit into the world to convict every person to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour to fill that void.

The world knows the truth of who Christ is, and they don’t want to receive him and so they hate those who have!

They hate the void in their lives and they hate knowing their on their way to hell and so they lash out on those who have what they don’t.

They hate the void in their lives and so they try to fill it with all sorts of worldly pleasures in an attempt to fill it, but no matter what they try, drugs, booze, sex or fame, it cannot be filled.

And so they try alternative lifestyles,  amusements or working to build up financial success but no matter what they attempt to rid themselves of their guilt and emptiness, nothing works.

And so they try to make themselves happy by attacking believers.

I hate to use the word Christians anymore because our churches are full of people who have never received Christ as Saviour, calling themselves “Christians”  but are in pulpits and the pews leading others to hell. Today as strange as this may sound but we have “christians ” attacking believers.

When the Lord returns to rapture the church, if its on a Saturday, Sunday morning almost all churches will still be opened, although believers will be gone, christians will come to church.

Sounds confusing but a true believer is one who has accepted by faith, in Jesus Christ as the Son of God who died on the cross, was buried and rose again the third day are the real Christians.  All others are fakes.

But because of this hatred for true believers that they have, they persecute believers in an attempt to shut us up and try to rid themselves of their guilt.

But persecution on believers isn’t always a bad thing, it wakes us up,  it draws us closer to our Saviour and through it, be can have even a closer relationship with God.

Persecution, refines the church and draws true believers together into a tight knit community who become strengthened to keep working and walking with Jesus.

Persecution, cleanses our hearts to rid ourselves from worldly things and lifestyles.

Persecution drives the false christians out of the church, ever notice when a church goes through tough times, how many leave?  Its called a back door revival, God removing the wolves so the sheep can serve and be strengthened.

Persecution if you really boil it all down, is really good for the church, it purifies it, cleans out the sin and leaves those who really love the Lord to do his will.

Don’t fear or run from persecution, embrace it, let God have his will done through it, because God always has a purpose for it.

Trust God, walk with Jesus, keep the faith because the church is about to be purified as persecution against believers will intensify over the next coming years.